Watch this video of Newark high school students.
They know what is happening to their schools.
They are fighting back with the only tool they have: Not with millions conferred by the Walton Family Foundation or the Gates Foundation or Mark Zuckerberg or Democrats for Education Reform.
With a student-made Youtube.
Student power can stop the attacks on public education.
Thank you, Newark Student Union.
Jersey Jazzman never sleeps. I get that. He is so outraged by the constant torrent of nonsense in the media that he has to deconstruct it.
In this post, he throws up some clay pigeons and knocks them all down, one by one.
The big one is the stuff put out by Margaret Spellings to put down New Jersey.
Since New Jersey is one of the nation’s top performing states, JJ doesn’t take kindly to the former Secretary’s misreading of NAEP data, nor the praise for Newark’s charters.
Matt D Carlo evaluates Néw Jersey’s
decision to take over the Camden school district.
Di Carlo says it may have been justified or not.
But state officials did not make their case.
Sounds like Chris Cerf should hire a statistician.
Jersey Jazzman has done his usual spectacular research job and discovered that a new charter operator is poised to enter the Camden “market” of school choice.
It happens to be the same for-profit charter operator who runs the Chester Community Charter School, who happens to be the single biggest campaign contributor to Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett. Since he opened his charter, the Chester public schools have gone bankrupt and been taken over by a state fiscal manager.
For good measure, Jersey Jazzman uncovers the buying of Democratic politicians who agreed to turn their city’s children over to the privatizers.
Privatization is not just a Republican thing. Amazing what campaign contributions can do.
Even more amazing is that it costs less to buy politicians in New Jersey than in Pennsylvania.
After Governor Christie announced his intention to take control of the public schools of Camden, this school board member resigned in protest.
The state has controlled three other impoverished urban districts, some for more than 20 years, without improving them. Paterson, for 24 years; Jersey City for 22 years; and Newark for 18 years.
Based solely on performance, one must say that state control in New Jersey is a total abject failure.
If performance matters, then some other state should take over Camden’s public schools, because the NJ Department of Education has an unbroken record of poor performance. It deserves an F.
Darcie Cimarusti–aka Mother Crusader–has become a scourge to the New Jersey State Education Department. She has taught herself to be a sleuth. And she has mastered the Open Public Records Act to dig for information and connect the dots.
This post is a good example of a parent doing the job of an investigative journalist.
She tracks down the emails between State Commissioner of Education Chris Cerf and an old friend from Edison days who now runs charter schools.
She learns how the state decided to award the friend a grant of $150,000 to plan a charter or cluster of charters in Paterson.
She notes that the state feels no obligation to solicit comment from anyone who lives in Paterson.
Maybe that’s what state control means in New Jersey. Paterson has been without democratic control for 21 years. Cerf can do whatever he wants and needs no one’s participation or consent.
A perfect setup for corporate reformers. While they are putting children first, they can’t wait. Democratic deliberation is a bother.
I earlier posted about the decision by Governor Christie to take control of the public schools of Camden, New Jersey. The state has controlled three other districts without “fixing” them. What will be different now? Or in those three other districts still under state control.
This teacher in Florida knows what should be done:
“I did my student teaching at woodrow wilson high school in camden, nj. those kids don’t need “a government” to run their schools. they need support. i had a boy in my class who was 17 and still in 9th grade, but b/c i took in under my wing and so did the rest of his teachers (all student teachers), he passed each class (mine with a solid C). children need to have someone who cares about teaching them, not someone who is fearful each day about losing his/her job b/c they state may come in and close the school. and schools need money, not bureaucrats who know nothing about education.”
Jersey Jazzman reports that Governor Christie has decided to take control of the Camden school district.
Camden is the fourth school district in the state to be taken over.
Paterson, Newark, and Jersey City are already controlled by the state.
JJ writes:
“Let’s be clear: Paterson has been under state control for 24 years, Jersey City for 22 years, and Newark for 18 years. Golly, what do you think all these places have in common?”
He shows in a graph that these districts have very few white students. So what’s the goal?
“And so the plan is clear: take over the schools, starting where there aren’t many white kids. Starve them of funds, then declare them “failures,” and install your cronies. Thetakeover of Camden’s schools has been in the works ever since California billionaire Eli Broad installed his puppets into the NJDOE. Tomorrow is simply the culmination of a long-term plan.”
What has been the result of these state takeovers? From the point of view of the students, nada.
Again, quoting JJ’s powerful post:
“If anyone has any evidence that disenfranchising local citizens and local parents leads to better school outcomes, please let me know, so I can debunk it as a load of crap. No school district ever got better by taking the local community out of its decision-making process. It’s shameful that Chris Christie, a tool of the ruling class, dares to tell the parents of Camden that he knows better than they do what needs to be done for their children.”
Look at it this way. Instead of closing a school here or there, or a dozen or two dozen schools, the governor simply seizes the whole district. It is his to play with. Some democracy.
This article gives an excellent overview of the ALEC education agenda and shows how states–in this case, New Jersey–copy the ALEC model legislation almost verbatim.
Diane Ravitch's blog 